Jajpur, June 20: The reinstatement of a teacher, accused of financial irregularities in Baharakula Project Primary School in Binjharpur block, has triggered a protest by the villagers. They have locked the government-run school since Friday. As a result, schoolchildren are enjoying undeclared holidays.

“Our school reopened on Friday after a 45-day long summer vacation. But, we found the school was locked from outside and people of our village were protesting there. Since then, we have been staying at home. We are waiting for the school to be opened so that the new academic session can begin,” said Kunmun, a student of Baharakula Project Primary School.

The villagers have been protesting against the reposting of the teacher, Ananda Charan Das, who was a teacher in the same school. He had been suspended for alleged misappropriation of school building funds.

After he was reinstated, the angry villagers did not allow him to enter the school and forced him to leave the place. They also staged an indefinite mass dharna in front of the school and organised a protest meeting demanding immediate cancellation of his posting. “It is ironical that the teacher who was suspended and transferred from our school following our complaint of misappropriation of school funds has been allowed to serve in the same school. We cannot find any justification behind this as he is yet to be absolved of the charges made against him. His reposting in our school would only encourage corruption. This is not acceptable. We request the authorities to immediately cancel his posting at our school,” said Ashok Kumar Rath, president of the school managing development committee (SMDC).

The committee has communicated the matter to the chief minister, minister and secretary of school and mass education, district collector, district project coordinator (DPC), district inspector of schools, block development officer, block resource coordinator and cluster resource coordinator.

“We have received the information of the Baharakula Project Primary School being locked up by the villagers in protest against a particular teacher. This matter concerns children and their education and would take appropriate steps to resolve it,” said Ajay Kumar Jena, DPC.

The DPC admitted that the institution concerned is a single-teacher school and all academic activities had come to a standstill following the villagers’ protest.